The smart-alec consultant had asked what seemed to be a simple question. I had just arrived in the meeting room with the rest of the leadership team to find that the owner had hired a quality expert to help us.
I wasn’t happy.
I didn’t think we needed any help.
We were growing and profitable so what was the point, I thought. I also didn’t like my territory, that of being the smartest guy in the room with all the answers, being infringed upon. Yes, in hindsight, it is easy to see I was obnoxious. Then, though, I didn’t see it that way.
I didn’t like being struck dumb by a simple question. “What is your process?”, he had asked.
So I went on the attack. “What do you mean by process?”, I frowned and maybe even sneered a bit.
He responded calmly, “I mean by what process do you run your meetings?”
I went for the laugh; “Well we all show up about 1:30…” I raised my eyebrows and stared at the VP of operations who just arrived at his usual 5 minutes late and got a chuckle from the other attendees, “…then,” I went on, “we argue for about an hour and a half,” which got another chuckle, “leave and go back to doing what we would have done anyway.” That got another chuckle, well, except from the boss. “Do you think,” I asked, “we should change it?” Now that got a real laugh. Even the consultant broke a smile.
In spite of my skepticism, in the back of my mind I realized I was already learning something. Having voiced it, I was pretty sure we had a process that could be improved. I was pretty sure it would be good for us. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like it.
I’m not, by nature, a big fan of rules. Back then, I even detested the idea of keeping a schedule. The good way, somebody else found to do something, was exactly how I would not do it. I would do it my own way. I was the consummate re-inventor of wheels. Sometimes they worked better, sometimes. Often, I now realize, I just wasted a bunch of time getting a result I could have gotten a lot faster if I hadn’t been so focused on what I wanted to do.
This attitude cost me a bunch of time and money. I realized, at some point, that I had to learn better. So I went to work on me.
In a few short sentences I can share what took me a bit longer to understand. I learned there was a better question for me to ask myself before I started the “doing” part of accomplishing something. Instead of asking myself “What do I want to do?”, I learned to ask myself first, “What do I want to have?” There were some things, I realized, I really wanted to have.
It’s like when I was a little kid, I really wanted a custom made chassis for my slot car. In order to have it there was no question that I would have to do some things I really didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to have to walk around, knock on doors and ask folks if I could cut thier lawns. I did it, though, and I got the new chassis I wanted to have. I knocked on forty doors and cut twenty lawns to get it. In the middle, one guy showed me how to sharpen my blade so I could cut faster. I didn’t care about doing it my way, I copied his method because I just wanted to get those lawns cut as fast as possible to get what I wanted to have.
To get what I wanted to have there were some things I had to do that I didn’t want to do. To get them accomplished faster I had to be someone who listened to what others had to say. I wonder how, as an accomplished adult, I forgot this simple reality.
Back to business; I learned to ask, “What do I want to have?”, “What will be my process for getting it? and, “Who do I have to be to do those things?”. Set a goal, have a plan and take time to sharpen the saw.
Now I take time to make my plan, track my progress and continuously work to improve my self. These were not in my nature. I had to learn how to do these things. There are some things I want to improve in my life and some things I want to have. I’ve learned to work on being clear about those things.
There are good techniques for getting clear about what-you-want-to-have and for planning to get them that I’ve learned from others along the way. If you don’t have a planning process that would be a great start. If you have a process they would be a great way to improve it further.
We help business owners work through reviewing their business using a well proven process. We help them take the results of the review and prioritize what they want to work on improving. We help them get it down on a simple plan they can follow to get what they want to have. You can’t go to far ahead because things change so fast. That’s why we do this every quarter. Check the sidebar for the next planning date (or click here). We call it GrowthCLUB. It’s about the growth of your business and the growth of yourself as a business leader. It is a club because you’ll be helping and learning from other business owners who are growing their businesses.
Maybe you’ll have a better answer to “What is your process?” for getting what you want out of life then I did back then.